03: As seen on a photograph
by cali-chan
Summary: Okina finds a photo on the attic, and shows it to Misao. Want to know what was on it?


Ah, here I go again. Totally A&M ^_^ Ok, so maybe Aoshi isn't as cold-hearted as he seems in this story, but that's how I percieve his relationship with Misao to be. And Misao may be a little OOC, as she acts a bit too much on the serious side... after all, this thingie doesn't have one bit of humor in it, it's pure sweetness! (but, geez, if you think THIS is OOC, I wonder just WHAT is your opinion of Misao!) Then again, it isn't excessively romantic either. It's like a small step for Misao&Aoshi, but a gigantic step for their fans! ^_^;;

I wrote this a looooooong time ago, and my english wasn't actually *good* back then, so if there's any mistakes, please tell me! And please, R&R!

Misao, Aoshi, Okina, Shiro, Kuro, Okon, Omasu and every other character that appears in this story are completely Watsuki Nobuhiro-sama's property and I'm not making any money out of this.

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As seen on a photograph   
a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Cali-chan.

Okina looked the piece of paper he had in his hands. He was looking at it with a smile on his face. Whatever it was, it made him feel suddenly happy.

Then he raised his head and looked at his surroundings. The attic. An attic he hadn't entered in quite a lot of years. Ah, how many memories were saved here. And it was time for someone to let them out. And that was what he did, and in the middle of boxes, little boxes and big boxes, he found a photograph. The photograph. THAT photograph.

Ah, so many good memories, the ones that were kept on that album. Okina remembered it perfectly: a long time ago, a friend of his had just found one of those photographic cameras, one of those that were novelty, and he decided to take it to an Oniwabanshuu party to test it. It was Shiro's birthday party. So he spent that day taking photos of everyone

Okina observed the photo again. Ah, those times were so good...

Then he looked at the album that was beside him, and a specific photo caught his attention. He left on the floor the one he had in his hand and he took the album with his other hand, he stood up and quickly made it to the first floor.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Misao-chan! So good that you're here! Come, I want to show you something!" he said, pulling her by her arms before she could even answer. He took her to the garden and they both sat down surrounded by flowers, comfortably.

"What's going on, Jiya?" Misao asked.

Okina didn't say a thing, he simply put the album on her lap. Misao opened it, and the first thing she found was a very funny photo.

It was her, and she couldn't be more than 7 or 8 years old. She only had one shoe on, her clothes were all muddy and her hair was a mess. But even like that, she had an ear-to-ear smile on her face.

This made Misao laugh. "What's this, huh?"

"Don't you remember? It was on one of Shiro's birthday parties. I told you to stay by the tree but you didn't want to, so you ran off and we lost you for a couple of hours. This was the result."

"I look very funny."

"You were very funny, Misao-chan. That party was such a disaster."

Misao turned the pages and saw the rest of the photographs. Okina, Okon, Shiro, Omasu and the rest, they all had their moments. It was obvious they were very happy. *But someone's missing...* After seeing all of them carefully, she closed the album and gave it back to Okina. "Are there more of these photos?"

"There's a couple in the attic."

"I think I'm going to look for them. Show this to everyone else, would you?"

"Okay. Ah, Okon is gonna die from embarrassment..."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Misao went up tho the attic.

*Typical Jiya, leaving everything messed up...* Misao thought.

She sat down on the side and started to search in the boxes. Not finding a thing, she started to get desperate, so she put everything on the other side to see if she could find one of those famous photographs Okina had told her were somewhere up here. But when she was searching in a drawer, she tripped (she wished no one had seen her because surely the person would doubt her ninja skills) and fell to the floor, and when she was going to stand up again, she saw it: it was the same photograph Okina had been looking at a while ago.

She took it in her hands and looked at it carefully. And almost immediately she felt there were tears in her eyes. But and the same time, her lips drew themselves into a smile. *He was the one that was missing...* She took the photo to her chest and pressed it against herself, as if she wanted to bring back that moment. Then, quickly she stood up and ran outside.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

In the temple, Aoshi was meditating calmly, as always. Nothing could disturb his inside peace... Except the sound of steps in the staircase.

Misao went up, but stayed standing under the doorframe. There was her Aoshi-sama, in the same place he always was, calmed, relaxed, tranquile... unstandable. As always, it was an image that made her feel unhappy. In her head, Misao tried to find a way for Aoshi to notice her in there.

She gave one step forward. "Aoshi-sama?" Nothing. As she had expected.

Another step. And another. And a couple more. And when she was in front of him, she decided. "Okay, Aoshi-sama... I only came to ask you a question, and I think I won't have my answer as always..." Misao looked again at the photo. "Aoshi-sama... do you remember what was happening in this photo...?"

As she expected, Aoshi didn't even open his eyes. And Misao felt tears falling again from her eyes.

"Well, Aoshi-sama, I'll leave it here anyways, so that if you get to see it, you could remember it..." and while she said this, she put the photograph on the floor in front of Aoshi, and turned around to get out of the temple.

A couple of seconds after Misao went out the door, Aoshi opened his eyes. He adjusted them to the light, and turned to see the photo. He took it in his hand, and watched it. He recognised it. He remembered it.

He stood up, and did something he rarely did: go out of the temple looking for Misao.

He found her a few steps from the last stairstep, apparently (sp?) crying. But when he got closer to her, he realised that she was just looking at the floor. Without saying a thing, he stopped behind her, and it was then when Misao realised he was there. She was so surprised, she didn't even bother to turn around.

"A-aoshi-sama?"   
  
Aoshi looked at her. "I remember it, Misao," he said simply.

It was then that Misao's heart attempted to burst from her chest. She turned around. "Y-you r-rem-member it?" She really didn't know why suddenly that bad habit of stuttering had come to her, but that didn't matter.

"Yes. We were at Shiro's birthday party. You were lost somewhere, so I had to go find you. I brought you back but you weren't very amused. So I promised you that on the next day I would take you out on a tour around Kyoto. You were happy then. And that was the moment Okina's friend took the photo."

Misao stayed thoughtful. "Could you tell me more about this photo, Aoshi-sama?"

Aoshi didn't change his blank expression. "Some other day, Misao. I have things to do," and when he said this, he left the photo on Misao's hands, turned around and went again to the temple.

Misao watched him leave... And suddenly smiled. Aoshi had answered her! Okay, so it wasn't an intense way of showing his affection, but for Misao it was as important as if he had taken her in his arms and proposed to her. She was so happy!

Then she looked at her hands, and at the photo. She saw it, with that smile still on her lips.

There she was, all muddy like in the other photograph, hugging a years-younger Aoshi, and giving him an innocent kiss on the cheek.

And Aoshi was smiling.

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Did cameras even EXIST then? I know they suppossedly did in Meiji 11, but eight years before? @_@ Anywayz, once again, please R&R!   
  



End file.
